Understanding rare events is crucial in modeling how complex many body systems organize, leading to diverse phenomena such as crystal nucleation and growth, chemical reactions in solution, self-assembly of macromolecules, protein folding and dynamics of disordered systems. Related phenomena occur in quantum field theory and cosmological phase transitions that may set the large-scale structure of the universe. Unifying theoretical concepts in this area require effective coarse-grained descriptions and non-equilibrium statistical mechanical methodologies. This program will bring together key people working in this area aiming at the development of new theoretical concepts and computational tools.

Relativistic astrophysics is experiencing an explosion in the quality of data and the level of sophistication of the modeling. Broadly defined, relativistic astrophysics studies phenomena for which the effects of Einstein's theory of relativity play a crucial role in determining the observables. Examples include relativistic motion of astrophysical jets, accretion onto black holes, formation and mergers of neutron stars and black holes, supernova explosions, and the acceleration of cosmic rays. For the next several years we expect a unique confluence of simultaneous observations from ground and space-based telescopes that span the whole electromagnetic spectrum: VLA (radio), Hubble/JWST (optical/infrared), Chandra, XMM, SWIFT, NuStar (X-rays), GLAST (gamma-rays), and HESS/MAGIC (multi-TeV gamma-rays). These facilities will be combined with the qualitatively new windows provided by particle astronomy via cosmic rays (Auger) and neutrinos (IceCube), and gravitational wave astronomy with LIGO.
Theoretical understanding of the extreme environments of relativistic astrophysics is challenging due to the difficulties of modeling the nonlinear physical processes involved. Only recently, robust algorithms for relativistic magnetohydrodynamcs (RMHD) and for the solution of the Einstein equations have been developed and applied to astrophysics.

The program will focus on the properties of graphene, a single-atom-thick layer of carbon. Discovered in 2004, graphene has quickly become one of the most active research fronts in condensed matter physics, owing to its fundamental importance, as well as the potential it offers to future nano-electronics applications. Originally, the interest in graphene was largely driven by its fascinating electronic properties: electrons moving in the background of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb graphene lattice become effectively massless, and behave like relativistic Dirac particles. More recently, researchers focused on the more complex many-body effects in graphene, as well as on understanding the sources of disorder present in graphene samples. Many prototype graphene devices have already been demonstrated, however, two major challenges for graphene nano-electronics remain: developing a reliable fabrication process and finding ways to control its electronic properties. The goal of our program is to learn about recent developments and open questions in graphene field, focusing both on the basic science and potential applications of this remarkable material.

The AdS/CFT correspondence is one of the most interesting developments to come out of string theory. It maps the physics of strongly interacting field theories to a dual classical gravitational description. Such a duality has led to a better understanding of both string theory and strongly coupled conformal field theories. This program aims to discuss both new, more formal, aspects of the duality involving M2 branes (the 2+1 dimensional fundamental objects of M-theory) which have been developed over the last two years, alongside various novel applications of the duality to condensed matter systems, hydrodynamics and heavy ion collisions. The former developments provide for gauge theory duals to stacks of M2-branes and hence in principle allow for a quantitative study of the still mysterious M- theory. The latter applications have been surprisingly successful in understanding features such as the low viscosity of the quark gluon plasma created at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven and its opacity to energetic heavy quarks. Hopefully, similar usage of the AdS/CFT duality can be made for solid-state systems.

One of the difficulties in treating and controlling cancer is that it is not a single disease, but a wide spectrum of different diseases. The most malignant forms of cancer remain medical mysteries and therefore very little progress has been made in extending survival times of such cancer patients. There is overwhelming evidence that cancer of all types are emerging, opportunistic systems. Success in treating various cancers as a self-organizing complex dynamical systems will require unconventional, innovative approaches and the combined effort of an interdisciplinary team of researchers. A lofty long-term goal of this project is not only to obtain a quantitative understanding of tumorigenesis but to limit and control the expansion of a solid tumor mass and the infiltration of cells from such masses into healthy tissue. During the last decade or so, it has been recognized that theoretical/computational modeling of tumor evolution will play an important role toward achieving this goal. The purpose of this program is to bring together a relatively small number of theoreticians and select clinicians to review the state-of-the-art in cancer modeling and to identify fruitful future research directions for theoreticians. The program will consist of a few talks and "brain-storming" sessions.